Optically detected magnetic resonance based thermometry using nanodiamonds implanted in living cells

Motivation: Intracellular temperature plays an important role in cell metabolism but there is a lack of consensus on basic thermal properties of cells and a shortage of reliable tools to measure temperature inside of living cells. Goal(s): We seek to improve intracellular temperature measurement for study of live cell metabolism. Approach: We developed a custom fluorescent confocal imaging system combined with a widefield imaging path to collect ODMR based temperature measurements and localize our measurements within a cell. Results: In our experiments with NDs implanted in live cells we observed an average temperature increase of 2.5 ±1°C after addition of a mitochondrial uncoupler. Impact: In addition to being a stepping stone to a better understanding of intracellular thermal properties, the methods developed in this work can also be applied to studying the interplay between temperature and cancer metabolism.